Neighbour describes hearing attack at killed man's house

Carol Tamati was woken in the early morning darkness by two men yelling angrily at each other just over her corrugated iron fence.

She leant out the bedroom window of her home in Waihi, near Paeroa, in Waikato, and clearly heard her neighbour of seven years, Phillip Hennah, 48, swearing.
Then she heard a slapping noise, "like a spade hitting soft earth for a couple of minutes".

Mrs Tamati said she thought nothing of it and went back to sleep.

It was only hours later on Saturday, when Mr Hennah's daughter found his badly beaten body lying in the rain outside the light green weatherboard family home, that Mrs Tamati realised the significance of what she had heard.

Police cordoned off the area and have launched an investigation.

Mrs Tamati said the ordeal had left her shaken and feeling guilty that she could have done something to help her neighbour.

"I've tossed and turned and haven't slept very well since then, just thinking I could have yelled out or rung the police but I didn't," she said today.

Police said today that Mr Hennah and some of his associates were well known to them.

But he was not a violent or offensive man, inquiry head Detective Senior Sergeant Glenn Dunbier of Hamilton police said.

Mrs Tamati, who has her 11-year-old granddaughter living with her, said that over the years she had not had any trouble with Mr Hennah or his family and had found him polite.

"If my granddaughter kicked a ball over the fence he would always throw it back. He helped fix the fence once when I asked him."

Over several years she had noticed cars leaving the house "at all hours of the day and night".

Four other neighbours who shared a boundary with Mr Hennah said he was rumoured to have a strong association with drugs.

One man said he had seen a steady stream of people coming and going at all hours of the day.

"They definitely aren't there long enough to be make a social visit," he said.

Another neighbour said that in the past five years he had seen police raid the house four times.

He was not surprised by Mr Hennah's death.

"I'm not shocked -- the life he led was pretty knife-edged. Something was bound to happen," he said.

Mr Dunbier would not specify what involvement Mr Hennah had had with police or whether it was drug related.

"Mr Hennah associated with a lot of people from all walks of life in Waihi and drugs are prevalent in all aspects of life. To make the leap that it was the cause of his death is purely speculative," he said.

Mr Hennah was last seen by his wife about 2am in their home. She went to bed and woke up to find him gone, Mr Dunbier said.

The family became concerned when he was not inside the next morning.

One of Mr Hennah's daughters found his body on the property about 1pm on Saturday.

Mr Dunbier said Mr Hennah had considerable injuries, probably from a beating, but he was not sure if a weapon had been used.

A neighbour said Mr Hennah's first wife Jenny died of cancer. They had had one daughter together, who was now aged about 19.

Mr Hennah met another woman who had four children and together they had another daughter who was five and who had just started school.

Mr Hennah had lived in Waihi since the mid-1980s and in this home for about 11 years.

The neighbour said Mr Hennah helped establish a youth programme at the local resource centre.

Police appealed to everyone who knew Mr Hennah to come forward and help with the investigation.

Mr Dunbier said some people who knew Mr Hennah would hesitate about talking to police.

"Mr Hennah was a well-known identity in Waihi and had a lot of associates.

"Several of these people may not be friends of the police but we need to speak with everyone who knew Mr Hennah in order to get some sort of picture of his life."

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES